more from Sydney Shoemaker

Single Idea 15758

[catalogued under 8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 3. Powers as Derived]

Full Idea

There is a distinction between powers, and the properties in virtue of which things have they powers they have (n8: 'in virtue of' means that there is a lawlike truth, which turns out to be the properties entailing the powers).

Gist of Idea

Things have powers in virtue of (which are entailed by) their properties

Source

Sydney Shoemaker (Causality and Properties [1980], §03)

Book Reference

Shoemaker,Sydney: 'Identity, Cause and Mind' [OUP 2003], p.211


A Reaction

To me this is an ontology which rests something very clear (a power) on something very indeterminate (a 'property').